MP3 DVD Playback Panasonic DVD players trough HighMAT

[Incure]

I have the new Panasonic S49 (almost the same as the S295 but a bit more advanced) and got very curious why it can't play MP3's on a DVD. So I did some research and this is what I found out:

The strange part is that it can read JPEG and Divx from DVD with no problems. Even a combination of JPEG+Divx+MP3 on a DVD is no problem, but still it can't see the MP3's (same for WMA files BTW).

Normally when you put in a CD you first get a content browser where you can choose wich type of content you want to play (Audio/Picture/Video). It checks on the disc what content is there and for example if there aren't any JPEG's on the CD, the option is greyed out, but still visible. But when you input a DVD with multiple contents including MP3's you don't see the option Audio anymore (it is not greyed out). That does me think that Panasonic disabled this function on purpose, for wathever reason.

Most Divx-files have audio MP3 encoded, so I thought to fool the player by renaming my MP3's to avi and burn them on a DVD. But no luck, the player now shows them all, but when you want to play them it says: "Cannot play".

Some weeks ago, new firmware was released only on the Poland and Hungray website of Panasonic, only stating to support Divx subtitles. You can download it here.

According to the information that someone got from the UK Panasonic support center (Panasonic UK, don't have the firmware on the website that the Poland and Hungray sites have) the new firmware should have:

-Divx,MP3, and Jpeg may be played from CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RAM and DVD-R

I haven't tried DVD-R yet (just DVD+R and DVD+RW). But I don't think that's the problem. I think the new firmware I'm using now, is just a small update for just the Divx subtitles. Maybe they release the real completed firmware (with DVD MP3 support) later on. Or else it's time to hack the firmware, the player is so close in doing this.


Finally, the last option I had for playing MP3 DVD's is the Highmat compatibility on this player. It's a system developed by Panasonic and Microsoft for easily browsing contents on discs. See here for more info. The MP3 CD I made worked very well and much nicer browser comes up. Now what if you could made a Highmat DVD? The only way to make this now is with the build in Highmat CD creator in Windows Media Player 10. And it won't burn Highmat on a DVD.

I searched for this and came accros this interesting news:
click here to read. According to this, Panasonic and Microsoft planned (back in 2003) to have Highmat on DVD. However I could not find an update on this.

So I tried last other thing, I made a nice working Highmat CD and that CD exists of a folder called HIGHMAT with some files in them. No special CD format is used. So I copied the complete contents of that CD to a DVD and tried to play them. Again no luck, I even tried various setups but the player doesn't recognise it as a HIGHMAT disc. I also tried the same with the HighMAT Extension for Windows XP CD Writing Wizard, to create a picture Highmat disc. And after that copied the contents to a DVD. Still the player won't recognise it as a Highmat disc and just shows the JPEG's.

Maybe the files within the HIGHMAT folder needed to be changed, but looking with an hexeditor at them I didn't get any wiser. So as an attachment I included the contents of the HIGHMAT folder of the audio and picture disc. See the readme in them for more details. EDIT: Attachment didn't work? Get them here. Maybe someone with some more XML knowledge knows what to do with it.

To end this rant, I know that all previous Panasonic DVD players cannot play DVD MP3 discs. But I have the feeling we I'm very close on letting it play them. If we can hack the HighMAT files it might even be possible for other Panasonic DVD players with HighMAT support to play DVD MP3 discs.

I spended a lot of research on it and I'm stuck now, hopefully someone can help me. If you need any more info (or even screenshots etc.), just post.

Finally, if it won't work trough HighMAT, the following can be tried to play DVD MP3 discs on Panasonic DVD players:
- Hack the current firmware
- Wait for new "official" uk firmware (not sure that it includes DVD MP3 support)
- Find a program that can burn Highmat content on DVD (Windows Writing wizard can't write to DVD's)
- Hack the Highmat driver in WMP 10/Windows so it can be burned on DVD discs (not sure if it will work)

[RabidDog]

Your fatal mistake is thinking that technical info on a Mfrs website is correct (*Shakes head ruefully*) . the person who put the info up probably thought "plays mp3 Cd's, plays DVD's, why wouldnt it play Mp3 DVD", as would any sane person.

You could try making complete black (or white, yellow (eg V.V low bitrate) divx files with a SHQ mp3 or even attach some Band art. Himat seems to have been born on Monday and dead by thursday. I doubt if there will be mp3 dvd support in current players as the navigation/ no of songs becomes problematical. Many player GUI's have either an explicit limit (999 files) or a working limit due to the limited memory available or processing power.